Well first if it isn't done with James Camerons tech for the 3d, which NO other movie is yet until the next Resident Evil, then it's a waste of time and has been for over 10 years.

I just got back from the release and it really wasn't THAT bad.

[spoiler=]I have numerous complaints about it, mostly specific things, but overall it was DEFINITELY a step in the right direction for tv show movies and book movies.

The effects were damn good, looked like practical effects for the most part. Action wasn't bad at all albeit not focused on enough. They actually showed you in some way or form parts of the story that they had to cut out, which is what EVERY show/book movie has to do from now on. Music was good too, all good things here.

Now only firebending fire that already exists is both wrong and a big excuse to cut down on budget and design, it's sad almost. This not only gave them an excuse to make the final fight seem a little underwhelming but now gives them bigger excuses for the FINALE of all the movies, the Sozens Comet ending to not be a huge DBZ style fight, not it'll just be a small fight with fire coming from them directly.

There were no Sokka jokes aside from just bad things happening to him, which needs to change. They needed to focus on him a little bit to make the Yue love story seem a LITTLE important at least, but didn't.... they needed to have Katara's quarrel with the northern tribe in it to show her strength but no, there was NO reason to change the way General Zhao found out about Zuko being the Blue Spirit and blowing him up. Instead they seriously just chalked it up to a line "Of course, I can't prove anything" and went on with it.

They REALLY needed to have fire lord Ozai look remotely close to the Ozai in the show, goatee at least or long hair... something, the Fire Lord hair thing..... And finally the earth bending BETTER be stepped up in choreography and effects for BOOK TWO because that shit won't cut it for Tof and her badass fights, especially since 4 dudes lifting one floating rock for ANOTHER guy to then throw it and you didn't even see the rock come out of the ground.... ugh.

And like most of these anyway, complaints from a fans pov, the NAMES of things, Sokka pronounced "SO KA", Aang pronouned "ON G" and the worst "Ag Ni Kai" "Ag ni KEE".... geezus. ANd did they even say the name MOMO? Or was it just an animal at this point?

ANd this leads me to my final thoughts..... AZULA and LIGHTNING. How is firebending existing fire going to change to BLUE FIRE? and since they can't create it then how the hell is the LIGHTNING going to happen in this show? Fighting during a thunderstorm once may work, but not for every major fire battle Also the final fight in the movie was too much like the Lord of the Rings Helms Deep fight, with a fat dude in it which was HILARIOUS.[/spoiler]

But I mean, what they did show you was pretty spot on, flowed well and mimicked the show nicely. they even did the flashback scene with Azula which I liked. and quite a few times the actors of each character sounded exactly like the toon voice which was both weird and cool.

But for a movie based on a kids show, and the first season being really cheesy and choppy to begin with, and making a condensed version for kids as well it did a pretty good job.

I read ebert's review and was not impressed, and have lost all respect for his opinion since that videogame comment a while back. I found his review of the movie to just be complete BS with him constantly trying to compare it to Miyazaki (it was an anime-style cartoon, why is it not anime style movie?!) and then claiming all the visuals were crap because it was a 3D movie as an afterthought. Anyone with a brain who has seen any 3D movies outside of avatar can figure out the 3D will be shit unless the movie was designed for it.

But yeah, i wasn't expecting a stellar movie, I'm just looking forward to seeing some characters brought to life, bending, Appa, and Dev Patel. I'll probably see it this weekend.

I don't think I'd lose my respect for him for that video game comment for the simple reason that he's not reviewing games, but movies. One opinion like that isn't enough for me to disregard his entire body of work.

Anyhow, the way he compared the movie to how Miyazaki handled Howl's was kinda odd at first, but I got what he meant. He wanted to the point across that animation has certain attributes that the original series took advantage of and so does Miyazaki with his movies. The movie does a poor job at replicating what the original show looked liked and loses its appeal in the process. He just would have preferred it to be an animated movie, not a live-action one.

And he had more problems with the visuals than just the 3D.

Strangely enough, after reading Ebert's review, I feel I have to see this now. Should be a different experience than when I watched DB:E since I don't have an attachment to the original material.

Interestingly enough the critic in one of our local newspapers gave it a pretty solid review. Probably by and far one of the only actually overall positive reviews I've ever seen of it. I think my interest in going to see it at the very least to formulate my own opinion of it has risen up a notch because of this.

But with her knowing 3 of the 4 elements, will the show be as interesting? Also, it sounds like a one season thing from that synopsis, seeing how she's already got 2 elements that aren't her native element under control. And the evil doesn't sound quite as big and looming as Sozin's Comet.

On the plus side, maybe we'll 1) find out about Zuko's mother and 2) see if the airbenders were rebuilt.